Consumers spend an average of 1 hour, 58 minutes a day on social networks and messaging, an increase of more than 20 minutes compared with 2012, according to a report this year from GlobalWebIndex. The market research firm found that networking and messaging captured 1 in 3 minutes spent online.

Amy Vaughn was hooked on Facebook. She browsed the social network when she woke up, after she got out of the shower, during breakfast, inside her car, while she cooked, during breaks and throughout the evening.

When Vaughn, a yoga instructor and author, realized Facebook was distracting her from writing, she knew she had to do something about it. Earlier this year, the Arizona resident installed a Google Chrome browser extension called StayFocusd that allows users to block websites for a specified amount of time. She started to set her phone to airplane mode when talking to people and shuts it off from after dinner until after breakfast. Now she only checks Facebook between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“Truly, it’s been a lesson in detachment to see the way the world goes on with or without me…To miss something on Facebook is not to miss something in real life,” she recently wrote in an email.

As the amount of time people spend on social media sites increases worldwide, a growing number of digital consumers like Vaughn are relying on tools such as StayFocusd and other strategies to prevent themselves from falling down a digital rabbit hole.

Consumers spend an average of 1 hour, 58 minutes a day on social networks and messaging, an increase of more than 20 minutes compared with 2012, according to a report this year from GlobalWebIndex. The market research firm, which surveyed people age 16 to 64, found that networking and messaging captured 1 in 3 minutes spent online.

While social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can help people keep in touch with their friends and family and keep up with news, some use it as a way to procrastinate. From watching cat videos to flipping through wedding and vacation photos, Facebook and other social media sites can be downright addictive — and studies have linked the use of social media to depression and lower self-esteem.

When Vaughn wasn’t on Facebook, thoughts of insecurity filled her mind. What if she lost clients and students? What if she missed something important?

“I checked constantly to see who said what, and because I thought people would notice if I didn’t respond, I was continuously scripting posts in my head,” wrote Vaughn, who battles obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety. “Just about silly things, random humorous observations, and stuff relating to my life — scripting them to make me appear in the best light, of course.”

There’s a reason why social media are so addictive, experts say.

Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems and decision sciences at Cal State Fullerton, said social media provide users with “viable rewards.” The brain doesn’t know what to expect when a person logs into these sites, creating excitement and curiosity.

“Every time you log on, you don’t know what your friends posted,” Turel said. “You don’t know how many people are going to like your post.”

Turel, who has studied Facebook addiction and its effects on the brain, said most people naturally control the release of dopamine — a neurotransmitter that influences emotions — but for some it’s more difficult than others.

“This is where a combination of strong, viable rewards with a weak ability to self-regulate produces addiction symptoms. Basically, we teach our brain to want and expect more rewards,” said Turel, who also is a scholar in residence at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute.

The amount of time a person may want to spend on social media sites varies, he said. Checking Facebook for a few minutes while driving can have far more dire consequences than browsing for hours when you’re supposed to be finishing a paper.

But like learning how to control the amount of food you eat, Turel said, people can do the same with the use of social media and other technology.

Digital consumers are finding numerous ways to limit the amount of time they’re on social media. Some of those methods are just simple changes of behavior or tweaks to the way their devices work. For example, some consumers turn off or turn down the number of notifications they receive on their phone. Others pile up their smartphones when they meet with friends.

Consumers are also turning to other tools. Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and Google are the top sites blocked by StayFocusd, the browser plug-in that Vaughn installed. Founded in 2010, it recently hit 700,000 users, according to its developer, Warren Benedetto.

Other consumers are turning to productivity tools such as RescueTime, which allows them to see how much time they’re spending on certain sites and apps, set goals and alarms, or block certain sites. People who use social media as part of their jobs turn to dashboards such as TweetDeck and HootSuite to make it easier to keep an eye on social media activity or schedule posts.

Bay Area real estate broker Val Krysov uses a Chrome browser extension called News Feed Eradicator, which strips the News Feed from Facebook and replaces it with an inspirational quote.

More than a year ago, Krysov was reflecting on what goals he wanted to accomplish in life and began to realize he needed to eliminate activities that sucked up too much of his time.

That included the time he spent on Facebook — Krysov estimates he saves about three to four hours a day from not scrolling through his Facebook News Feed.

“You’re constantly in a reactive mood when something beeps on your computer or phone,” he said.

Now the 53-year-old Foster City resident, who uses Facebook to help build his brand as a real estate broker, only checks messages and limits his posts on the site to four times a day with the help of News Feed Eradicator.

“We all have 24 hours in a day,” he said. “You have to be intentional with what you’re doing with your life.”

5 tips to manage your time on social media

1. Limit notifications: Hearing your cellphone ping with notifications might compel you to check social media apps. You can turn off or adjust notifications in an app’s settings. Another trick is to set your phone to airplane mode. Android phones and iPhones also have a “Do Not Disturb” mode that allows users to silence calls and alerts for a scheduled amount of time.

2. Get rid of visual temptations: Out of sight, out of mind. If you find yourself scrolling through Facebook’s News Feed for hours, there are browser extensions such as News Feed Eradicator that strips the website of the News Feed and replaces it with an inspirational quote. Piling up your phones while you’re with friends or placing the device in a drawer also can make you less tempted to check Facebook, Twitter and other social media apps.

3. Schedule a time in the day to check your social media accounts: Browser extensions such as StayFocusd allow you to block certain websites for a certain amount of time. When a site is blocked, users see the message “Shouldn’t you be working?” Users can set a challenge in which they need to type out an entire paragraph about procrastination to change the extension’s settings. Productivity tools such as RescueTime allow users to see how much time they’re spending on certain sites and apps, set goals and alarms, or block certain sites.

4. Stay organized: Social media have become part of people’s jobs. You might need it to promote a product or your business throughout the day or consume information. Dashboards such as TweetDeck and HootSuite can help you schedule posts at certain time or better organize the accounts you follow.

5. Keep your phone out of the bedroom: Are you spending too much time staring at a glowing screen in bed when you really should be getting some shut-eye? Do you start clicking on apps the moment your alarm goes off in the morning? Ditch using your phone as an alarm clock and keep it outside the bedroom.

Queenie Wong covers social media businesses, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, for The Mercury News. She grew up in Southern California and is a graduate of Washington and Lee University where she earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and studio art.

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